The Cause of Holiness—Romans 6:19

"I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness" (Romans 6:19)

It is amazing to me that God gives us a choice. We have a choice in everything. He does not dictate our every move. We are not His robots. We are however the recipients of everything he appropriated in Christ Jesus. He provided everything that we need to live free in Him on the cross over two thousand years ago. However, it is our choice whether or not we utilize what he has done.

In the previous verse, Paul tells us that "You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness." ( Romans 6:18 ). Meaning that this was an accomplished fact. However, Romans 6:16 says, "you are slaves to the one whom you obey-whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?" ( Romans 6:16 ) Meaning that how we act dictates whether or not we truly experience this freedom from sin in our lives. It is a choice.

What Jesus did, was provide this freedom from your old sin nature in your born again spirit. So the natural side will still see some effects of the previous nature. However, It is important to know we have been freed as the starting point. So in today's passage Paul explains to us how to replicate this freedom into the natural realm of what we see and experience. The solution is to offer your body in slavery to righteousness which leads to holiness. The Amplified Bible puts it this way, "I am speaking in familiar human terms because of your natural limitations. For as you yielded your bodily members [and faculties] as servants to impurity and ever increasing lawlessness, so now yield your bodily members [and faculties] once for all as servants to righteousness (right being and doing) [which leads] to sanctification." ( Romans 6:19 Amp ).

In today's verse, Paul makes a switch and talks about the natural realm so that we will see the fruit of what is currently in our spirit overflow into it. Remember It is a choice. The truth is that you have been freed from sin. The application is that you should no longer yield to the old sin nature that is foreign to your new nature. Instead you should yield to the new nature and become slave to that. Your new nature is a nature of righteousness through Christ Jesus. When we yield to him we see the leftover effects of the old nature disappear. The result of yielding to the new nature is holiness. Not obtained through works of the Law but obtain as an effortless byproduct of our new spirit.

Today, I pray that you yield completely to your new born again spirit and become a slave to that. May you experience true holiness branching out from this. God Bless you as you take His word into your heart and watch it grow.